Diego Maradona is back in the news for all the wrong reasons after slapping a
reporter. Here are ten reasons why he's still the man we hate to love

Football has been missing something recently. The World Cup was great and last season’s Premier League was as exciting as there’s been but, until this week, there has been a void only one man can fill.

And now he has:

Welcome back to infamy, Diego Armando Maradona - we’ve missed you.

The greatest footballer ever (probably) has returned from his exile from notoriety in typically ridiculous fashion, slapping a journalist after a Harry Redknapp-esque through-the-car-window interview.

Related Articles

To mark the occasion, we have compiled a list of ten reasons why we just can’t live without Diego.

1) He attacks irritating fans

Diego’s 14-month tenure as manager of Al Wasl in the United Arab Emirates was, frankly, pretty rubbish. But while the football may have been drab, controversy was never far away. Like the time he kicked some supporters who were, in all fairness, being a bit annoying:

“He looks like a ball boy,” said Diego of Thomas Muller, who was sat next to him, during a press conference in March 2010.

Maradona promptly got up and walked out in protest until the German left the stage to him alone.

Delicious irony then when Muller scored the first goal in Germany’s 4-0 World Cup quarter final demolition of Argentina three months later.

“As for Maradona, well, this is special for me,” said Muller afterwards. “I don’t think that he thinks I am a ball boy any more.”

3) He swears on TV - at old people

Lionel Messi’s magical injury-time winner against Iran at this summer’s World Cup brought those inside Belo Horizonte’s Estádio Mineirão to their feet. But not Maradona - because he had already left by that point.

Coincidence? The 82-year-old president of the Argentinian Football Association, Julio Grondona, certainly didn’t think so, suggesting that Diego was “jinxed”.

“Poor stupid man… jinx this,” responded Maradona during an interview on the live television.

4) He defends the indefensible

Uruguayans aside, there weren’t too many people queuing up to defend Luis Suarez after the ex-Liverpool star took a bite out of Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder this summer.

But then Maradona (a vocal admirer of Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) has never been afraid to side with the maligned.

"Luis, we are with you," said Maradona, who described the striker’s four-month ban as “shameful”.

5) He likes a scrap

The boy from a shantytown on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires quickly learnt to stand up for himself. And he may have only been 2ft 3ins tall, but he could clearly handle himself on the football pitch.

6) He promotes ridiculous coaching methods

Argentina were widely considered to have had one of the finest squads at the 2010 World Cup. With a team boasting Messi, Tevez, Higuain, Aguero and Di Maria, La Albiceleste were many people’s outside bet.

But those who backed them failed to take their manager into account. And with coaching methods like this, it’s not hard to see why it all went so horribly wrong:

7) He insults the media

Fergie had his moments and Kenny Dalglish could deliver a withering Glaswegian look, but none of them compare to Maradona when it comes to abusing the press.

After a bumpy ride to World Cup qualification in 2010, Diego opted for honesty rather than diplomacy when addressing reporters.

"To those who did not believe in us - and ladies forgive me - they can suck my ---- and keep on sucking it," he said. "I am black or white; I'll never be grey in my life.

"You lot take it up the a---, if the ladies will pardon the expression. This is for all Argentineans except for the journalists.

"This is for those who did not believe in the team and treated me like dirt - but we still qualified with honour.”

8) He really loved cocaine

Look how happy and excited and twitchy and full of nervous energy Argentina’s number ten looks here after scoring in the 1994 World Cup against Greece:

That might be because he had been taking lots of drugs. He duly failed a doping test and was sent home in disgrace.

His problems began after joining Barcelona in 1982 and despite huge success in Italy after joining Napoli, his addiction came back to haunt him once again and he was banned from football for 15 months in 1991 after testing positive for cocaine.

“What an a---hole you are,” Maradona is alleged to have shouted from the car. “How can you put your leg there where it can get run over, man?”

But the most notorious example of Maradona’s fractious relationship with the press came in 1998, when he was given a suspended jail sentence of two years and 10 months for shooting and injuring journalists with an air rifle outside his home.

10) He has the hand of God

We had to include this:

It is ridiculous, grotesque and hilarious - a bit like the man himself.